


Life in Parallel

by Ameloise



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 12:11:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7934152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ameloise/pseuds/Ameloise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shop girl Rose meets charming science geek Doctor John Smith and, naturally, romance follows. The good doctor harbors a rather nasty secret. If ever two were fated to be together, Rose and John would be it.  Will they allow the universe to keep them apart?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life in Parallel

Grimacing at the threatening sky above, Rose steeled herself for a cold dash in the rain. Her bus stop was three blocks away and she’d forgotten her brolly in her usual morning rush. Nothing for it, she thought, the rain won’t be letting up anytime soon. Rose looked side to side before dashing out toward the bus stop, her feet promptly landing in a filthy puddle. She could hear the familiar engine sounds of the bus behind her in its approach to the stop.

****

“Of course!” Rose cried, looking down at her new, now ruined pumps. “This is so like me. First day on the job, an awful day all around, and now I am punished with this. Unfair, it is. But, yeah, so like me.”

Shoes squelching and squeaking, Rose determinedly forced herself to continue her quest to reach the bus even as it passed her. She waved and shouted at the driver to no avail. Standing in the rain, soaked to the bone, Rose watched the bus ramble down the street without her. 

“Yeah…” Rose said aloud, looking down at her drenched form. She quickly ducked under the doorway of a nearby building, hoping for shelter while she waited for the next bus. 

“Wellll…you could stand out here in the cold and in the rain, you could, or you could come inside for a bit and warm up,” came a soft masculine voice behind her. 

Startled, Rose’s eyes grew wide as she took in the man before her: tall, slim, large, velvety brown eyes, sculpted cheekbones, and hair artfully arranged into the perfect bedhead. She stared in fascination as his pouty lower lip pulled back into a knowing grin and then felt herself blink. Had he spoken? What did he say?

“Well?” the man asked, smiling. “Care to join me?”

“Uh…y-y-yes?” Rose stuttered. Brilliant, she thought. Brain! Get working! 

“Um, join you where?” With a chuckle, he opened the door and let her in.

“Here. My shop. I love my little shop!” he gushed with pride.

“What sort of shop is it then?” asked Rose, trying to deduce the answer by looking around. She saw a few comfortable-looking couches, low tables, lamps, and a wall of doors facing opposite. 

“Oh! Well, I’m an inventor! I find things and make them into new, better things that people can actually use. Welll, I say use, and sometimes that’s true, but…” He trailed off, stepped back onto his heels, and dug both hands into the pockets of his distractingly tight brown pinstriped suit. 

“You repurpose things? That’s brilliant!” Rose beamed up at him. “Can I see something?”

“Absolutely, Miss--? Madame?” the man’s smile slipped a bit. “Missus?”

“Er, Rose. Just Rose. Rose Tyler.”

“Rose Tyler,” he said as if testing out the weight of each syllable. “I’m John Smith, proprietor of this fine establishment. You can call me Doctor, if you want.”

“Doctor? What sort of doctor are you?” Rose teased, letting her tongue poke out between her lips as she smiled.

John’s face turned an interesting shade of pink as he looked down at his new companion. “Um, uh. Astrophysics and Neuroscience,” he gulped.

“Huh? What is that?” Rose asked, feeling a strange pit grow in her stomach. Well, that’s that, she thought, trying to tamp down the attraction she felt for this man. I’m a shop girl, working a shop for pittance wages. No way Doctor Gorgeous is going to want anything to do with a lowly shop girl.

“Oh, just a study in how the world and human brain work,” he mumbled while grabbing onto her arm and directing her toward the wall of doors.

Right. Just a study in how the world and human brain work! Rose started to pull her arm loose, saying, “Maybe I should go?” 

“Go? No! Why? Where?” he asked, shaking his head sharply. “I mean, don’t you want to see my shop? I have wonderful things to show you! Brilliant things!” John turned to watch her with a pleading expression on his face. “Please don’t go. I just—I have enjoyed spending time with you and I’d love to show you my shop. Please?”

Rose stood before this man she has only just met, a stranger to her just an hour ago, and knew in that moment that she was lost. Properly lost, much like her wayward umbrella. “Ok,” she agreed.

“Oh, top banana! I mean--um. I’ve never said that before, and I really hope to never say it again,” he rambled adorably, scrubbed a hand through his wild hair, and gestured toward the open door. “Shall we?”

The room they walked into was very large, large enough that Rose wondered how it could even possibly fit within the building holding the storefront they’d just left. Rose then recalled that the wall had been lined with doors and was quite perplexed. John was flipping switches here, toggling a knob there, seemingly quite content with whatever it was he was doing.


End file.
